You were just recognized in Editor & Publisher's “Tomorrow’s News Trailblazers,” which salutes people “transforming news media.” How are you doing that?
I see it as my mission to transform the way our industry works by focusing on journalism as a service. Traditionally, the news media had the privilege of being gatekeepers of information. We like to think we write about what is in the public interest, but I have found that in practice this is often not the case. As an industry we're mostly interested in writing "great stories," but not necessarily in what our audiences actually need.
Nowadays, with so much competition, we need to prove our worth. That means understanding deeply which service we’re providing to our audiences, what value they’re getting from our work. Everything I do is aimed at bringing that school of thinking front and center.
You are a big proponent of design thinking. How does this work in a newsroom?
One of the adages of design thinking is that you should design with the humans you’re designing for. Rather than thinking “we build a cool thing and people will like it,” we say: “We want to understand the needs of the people we’re designing for and make sure we develop a solution that fits those needs.” It puts you in a service mindset, you’re facilitating rather than dictating.
In a newsroom context, design thinking at the story level means you see journalism as a two-way street. You want to create stories that are useful for people and you want to invite people to contribute to the story, rather than being mere recipients of it. Hearken is a good example of this model of thinking.
At the product level, where I work, we use design thinking to deeply understand our users and what they might need from our website, for example. What kind of problems are they trying to solve that we could create a solution for?
You’ve been a driving force of innovation at OCCRP, helping to lead our shift toward an audience-first, product-led newsroom. What are some of the hurdles you’ve faced?
One of the main challenges in the journalism industry in general is that we're slow to adapt to change and adopt new ways of thinking, which is especially important given the state of the industry and the sustainability challenges we are all facing. I’m a huge proponent of interdisciplinary teams and mindsets, bringing different perspectives into the room. That causes friction, but without friction, there’s no polish.
How is the website redesign going? It’s a big job.
Two years ago we relaunched the entire website, which was highly necessary because it unlocked a modern blueprint for us to keep building on. But we’re not there yet, a product is never finished. Right now we’re focusing on improving the user experience and making the website more flexible for our editors to use. We’ve divided the work into smaller chunks, so we’re continuously releasing smaller updates. There’s also some more ambitious work on the horizon, which I can’t say much about yet.
You are also a consultant for newsrooms and media NGOs around the world, focusing on teaching audience engagement and design thinking skills. What drives you to do this work?
The overarching theme of my career so far has been wanting to help transform the journalism industry to become more service oriented, innovative, and sustainable. When I was little, I thought I wanted to be a journalist. But once I became a journalist, I realized that I’d rather work on improving the industry than writing the best stories. I like thinking in systems, and I like working with organizations that are trying to make the world a better place. Journalism is a great space for that.
How has working at OCCRP changed you?
OCCRP is the most internationally oriented organization I have ever worked for. All these different experiences, backgrounds, and communication styles have helped me appreciate even more how important it is to invite a diversity of voices into your workplace. I’ve also become more vocal in my own Western European media circles about how privileged we are, when so many of our colleagues are doing their work in much more dire circumstances.
You have a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University and you graduated in 2019. What’s changed since then?
When I graduated, I remember having a few very private thoughts about the future of the industry that I knew I couldn’t say out loud. They had to do with acknowledging that journalism is a market failure and the impact design thinking could have on the way we work. Now, both of those ideas are much more in vogue. It’s going slow, surely, but I feel less like a Cassandra now. The challenge is figuring out what the next horizon is going to be.
You work a lot of hours. Any tips on balancing your life to stay sane?
I don’t work weekends, period. Time off is time off. You have to protect that time and make sure to use it to recharge. It’s easy to fall into the productivity trap — I have trouble with this as well. Recogn…
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